PHOTO
How to be anchored in the storms of life is the topic of a workshop being held in Invercargill on Saturday.
Former Invercargill woman Tania Comerford will be leading the Anchored Masterclass workshop at The Langlands hotel.
Mrs Comerford said many people did not cope with trouble in life because their sense of identity was not grounded in the truth.
However, she taught in her class if people had a healthy sense of identity they would weather the storms of life much better.
That identity was based on "we matter, we’ve got value, we’ve got worth.
"We need to know who we are."
Her background is in accounting and administration.
After she and her husband Dean moved to Australia about 16 years ago she found similar work but then decided to change direction.
She went to university and trained as a counsellor.
When Mr Comerford sought help from a trauma therapist, the change was amazing, she said.
"Because Dean literally transformed over those three sessions, I actually wrote a book about it."
The book, which is not published yet, is called I Got a New Husband in Three Weeks.
She was inspired to take part in the trauma therapy training herself.
"When I went through it, it changed me and I became this very confident person.
"Didn’t even realise I had fear and it was gone."
She used the techniques in her work as a life coach.
"I’ve been doing that for five years, and that completely transforms people’s lives."
One man who had post traumatic stress disorder from two tours to Afghanistan had just about given up on life.
He was on pain medication and was using a walking stick.
After three sessions not only was his emotional pain gone and he was feeling joyful again but later his physical pain went too.
"That's why I’m very passionate about what I do and how I can help people."
Many people viewed trauma as serious life events like a car crash or fire but everyone had experienced trauma, she said.
"Everybody’s got things that trigger them, that make them react to things from the past."
She realised how powerful the message was after Mr Comerford died last year.
Even though the couple had been together for about 40 years and were "soul mates", she coped very well.
"When there’s nothing for the grief to stick to, it just passed quite quickly and so I didn’t get stuck at all.
"I realised that it all comes down to I knew who I was."
She was visiting Southland for a family birthday and decided to hold the workshop as many people had expressed interest in comments on her Facebook page, she said.
It was important people registered for the workshop and there were details how they could do this on Mrs Comerford’s Facebook page.